A View from the CT Foxhole: An Interview with Major General Wayne W. Grigsby, Jr., Commander, CJTF-HoA

CTC: Can you briefly describe the strategic importance of CJTF-HoA, its area of responsibility, and the strategic role it plays in both U.S. national security interests and U.S. counterterrorism efforts writ large?

MG Grigsby: Located in Djibouti, CJTF-HoA is the only permanent U.S. military presence on the African continent, providing regional access and crisis response across East Africa, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Somalia. We also sit just 80 miles from Yemen.

CJTF-HoA sits at the seams, both geographically and operationally. Geographically, we are located just south of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is the strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Roughly 5 percent of the world’s oil passes through it each day.

Operationally, we are on the border of U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Central Command, and two additional combatant commands–U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Transportation Command–have significant equities here.

CJTF-HoA works by, with, and through our joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational teammates . . . actually, I think we work behind, beside, and below because we enable these regional actors to neutralize violent extremist organizations. We also enable counterterrorism efforts writ large by sharing information and building partner capacity. Ultimately, we are successful if we enable and assist East Africans to solve East African problems, one of which–I repeat, one of which–is combating terrorism.

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